In Pursuit of the Pursuit

Rather than give a long and boring account of the track campaign just gone, I thought I would do a deep dive into the 3000 m Individual Pursuit. Both the Queensland and Australian Championships would prove to be frustrating affairs for that event, for reasons I will unpack. But just in summary, this is the end result of the two championships:

Queensland Championships:
Gold - Individual Pursuit
Gold - Omnium
Silver - Time Trial
Silver - Scratch Race
Silver - Points Race

Australian Championships:
Gold - Points Race
Silver - Individual Pursuit
Silver - Team Pursuit
Bronze - Scratch Race

So to the Individual Pursuit... I race in the Masters 4 division (men aged 45 - 49 years). The Individual Pursuit has been a focus for a few years now. I have a fairly good fit from a physiology perspective and I like the fact that the event looks so simple, but in reality is very hard to execute perfectly. My personal best leading into this campaign was 3 min 32.6 sec, which I set in the qualifying round of last year's Australian Championships, on my way to winning my first ever individual Australian title. I was hopeful and confident I could go faster at one of the two championships I was about to compete in. My coach Mark Brady had continued to fine tune my training for these championships and I felt like I was ready. 

Queensland Championships:

The Individual Pursuit was held on the final day of the championships and was straight after the Omnium. The Omnium is my favourite event on the track. My physiology is just about perfect for it so I take it seriously and always give 100% in terms of trying to win it. Unfortunately, there is no masters Omnium at the Australian Championships and this fact continues to disappoint me. Needless to say, my legs were a little on the tired side coming into the Individual Pursuit qualifying round but I was still of the belief I could set a very good time.

I started on a 3 min 33 sec schedule (called by John Eder) and was quite comfortable as the round progressed. I actually had good legs and was hoping to lift near the end and dip under my personal best time. I am always conscious of the weather and the impact it has on the Individual Pursuit. The atmospheric pressure was at 1015 hPa, which is definitely not conducive to fast times. The other consideration was the humidity. It was an exceptionally humid day and although that has minimal impact on the actual air conditions, there is a huge physiological cost for most people in terms of the effort required to go fast.

In the last kilometre things started to get very messy. I was qualifying against Matt Murray from the Kangaroo Point Cycling Club. A little up on schedule, I caught Matt at the start of lap 9. I am not sure why, but as I came alongside of him, he accelerated and kept me up on the bank. He informed me after the race that it was always his intention to lift at exactly that point and I can only take him on his word. Whatever the reason, the outcome was me riding almost halfway up the track for nearly a full lap, having to almost sprint to get over him. This ended up being a 17.177 second lap which was one of my quickest. Amazing when you consider the extra distance I must have ridden being such a long way from the black line. An effort like that doesn't come without consequences. If you look at my last three lap times (below) I was clearly smashed from the catch and it showed. 

I was astonished to see I had ridden a 3 min 33.482 sec time. Well inside one second off my personal best, in tough weather conditions and with a catch that was nothing short of a disaster for my schedule. Frustrated much? You betcha. 

In the final I was up against Dave McAdam from the Balmoral Cycling Club. I had a good gap over Dave in qualifying and I was already thinking about the Points Race that afternoon. I wanted to win with a catch and not go on for a time, to give my legs some much needed relief. I managed to make that happen and secured the title. 

Don't get me wrong, I was delighted to win this title, but a great opportunity for a personal best went begging, and that annoyed me no end.

Australian Championships:

Six weeks later the Australian Championships were held. The legs were good and the Individual Pursuit was held on the first day, meaning I should be fresh and fast. The weather was still no help, with 1018 hPa for the qualifying round and 1016 hPa for the finals, but at least the horrible humidity was gone. I knew the field well and could see that Damon Malek from Penrith would be my biggest competition. He won the NSW Championships in a 3 min 34 sec time, which was two seconds slower than my personal best. I was also lucky to be qualifying in the last round, meaning I could aim for a specific time to make the gold medal final, rather than  having to put in a huge effort in qualifying.

Damon qualified in a 3 min 36 sec time and the next best was team mate Craig O'Connell in a 3 min 41 sec. As long as I was under Craig's time I would be in the final. With John Eder calling me I went out on a very conservative 3 min 36 schedule. I actually found it very difficult to ride 'deliberately slow' and struggled with the gear, In hindsight I should have actually dropped my gear. I slipped off the schedule at halfway but knowing how much time I had to play with I tapped out a 3 min 39 sec ride to safely make the gold medal final. 

I had plenty of time to think about the final. I noticed that when Damon qualified he had an exceptionally fast start. His first kilometre was 1 min 09 sec but he faded considerably after that. My plan was to ride a 3 min 32 sec schedule, get on top of it and stay there, because Damon had simply never ridden that quick and I didn't believe he could on that day. I expected to be down after the first kilometre, but to claw it back by the end. I didn't expect what actually happened. Damon started very quick as he did in the first ride, this time with a 1 min 10 sec opening kilometre. This put him in a position where a massive effort would enable him to scramble across to my back wheel and end the pursuit. CAUGHT. John (my caller) did see this unfolding and warned me but it was all too late. It was all over at the halfway point. A risky strategy from Damon, but I must give him full credit. It is a pursuit after all. He rolled the dice and he won. I can't fault him for how he rode in any way. Amazingly, I was sitting smack on a 3 min 32 sec schedule when the catch was made. A faster schedule than either of us had ever ridden; with a silver medal. That's bike racing huh?

It does raise an interesting question for both me and my coach, in terms of how I deal with such an opponent in the future. My approach to an Individual Pursuit is to start well (not too fast, but not too slow), hit my schedule within two laps and then sit there until the end. My lap times have very little variation across them. So what should my response be? Ride a much faster opening kilometre and then slide down into a more relaxed schedule? That's a tough ask, given that I could barely ride a 1 min 10 sec kilometre if the race ended there. Ride a super fast second kilometre? To be honest I'm not sure and it is something I will continue to work through with my coach.

So there you have it, the Individual Pursuit campaign for 2020 done and dusted with a gold medal, a silver medal and truckload of frustration to go with them.